A cheerful procession down a city street packed with supporters in the residential city of Lomas de Zamora in Buenos Aires turned almost deadly when President Javier Milei, the controversial populist figure of Argentine politics, and his convoy were pelted with rocks, debris, glass bottles and masses of stone the size of melons by opposition voters.
Videos posted on social media show the president’s motorcade narrowly escaping the onslaught and being briskly evacuated from the area as a mob of attackers enveloped the president’s security team.
The president, along with his influential sister and Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei on board, greeted followers who lined the city’s streets, showing their support for their president while campaigning in the city ahead of the nation’s legislative elections to be held in October.
The leader of the La Libertad Avanza party has spent time in the trenches since coming into power, attempting to rein in the nation’s runaway inflation that has tormented Argentine citizens for decades.
Milei campaigned on the promise of restoring public confidence in the nation’s fiscal stability and to cut away the government’s spending deficits.
Milei ran on a populist platform that leans heavily to the right, a dramatic departure from previous administrations characterized by a more liberal progressive approach in the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Kirchner, a controversial political figure in her own right, mired by various scandals involving public corruption.
Milei, however, is now embroiled in his own scandal, involving his own sister, Karina.
Leaked audio recordings have been broadcast over every national Argentine news outlet since tapes were released, featuring the voice of former ANDIS (state disability agency) chief and ex-Milei lawyer, Diego Spagnuolo, claiming that Karina Milei has pocketed funds destined for people with disabilities, according to the Buenos Aires Times.
“Karina gets three percent and one percent goes to the operation,” can be heard over the audio tapes. The scheme allegedly involved purchases from the Suizo Argentina drugstore, which distributes medicine to those enrolled in the public program.
President Milei broke his silence on the matter moments before the campaign event on Wednesday, stating: “Everything [Spagnuolo] says is a lie,” also adding that “We are going to bring him to justice and prove he lied.”
The administration’s Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos, told members of Congress on Wednesday during a hearing that the scandal was a “political operation” conjured up by Milei opposition actors weeks before the legislative elections.
Moments before the motorcade took on a hail of projectiles, Milei and his sister, Karina, and several other officials on the campaign trail with President Milei appeared jubilant, cheering the crowds on, adorned in their purple party colors.
Suddenly, photographers captured the moment when stones and heavy pieces of rubble came falling onto the convoy. Members of Milei’s security detail and the president’s political motorcade appeared agitated when protesters stormed the convoy, surrounding the government leaders with rocks and heavy limestone.
Reporters on the scene noticed a trailer parked on a nearby street that supporters of Milei pointed out was intentionally placed there ahead of time, before the start of the procession, so that agitators could come and pick up bags of stones to target the president’s convoy.
After the Argentine president was whisked away in his security vehicle, opponents of Milei and groups of his supporters who attended the rally began to skirmish, with several instances reportedly turning violent.
When asked what inspired opposition demonstrators to attend the venue and protest the Argentine president, some Protesters mentioned the lack of interest the president has demonstrated since taking office in some of the concerns of the local residents in the surrounding cities of Buenos Aires.
One particular rioter highlighted the lack of urgency on the president’s behalf for the ailing infrastructure in the city.
Shortly after the violent incident surrounding the president’s motorcade, Milei posted on his social media account, featuring a photo showing a stone flying just above his head (the one used as the cover photo for this article by Sociedad), accompanied by the words: “CIVILISATION OR BARBARISM. KIRCHNERISMO NEVER AGAIN,” a reference to the former opposition leader in former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The topic of scandalous political intrigue and last-minute accusations of public corruption didn’t seem to land for several demonstrators. Most of their arguments followed along political lines and kitchen table issues, so to speak – the same things that tend to always concern voters when elections come around.
The years of Kirchnerism were heady times for the Argentine republic, where left-wing administrations mired in corruption charges sent the heads of Argentines spinning. For many years, there has been an environment of great distrust in local politicians and government institutions – an environment not wholly unfamiliar to Argentine voters.
The legislative election cycle coming up in October will certainly be a litmus test for the Milei government and whether Argentines feel he is cutting through on some of his primary campaign promises, such as government waste, inflation, and employment and fiscal stability. Argentine confidence in the president on the economic front will make or break the remainder of his time in office.
The most recent scandal involving the president’s sister, however, will be pounced on by Milei opponents and opposition party members, but only the voters will determine how deep the scandal runs in the minds of the electorate.
